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What to ask during your interview

Most of the literature about interviews is focused on how to give good answers and get an offer letter.
I talk to a lot of candidates that forget that interviewing is a bi-directional process. In the world of technology companies and startups specifically the candidates are interviewing the company just as much as the company is interviewing them. Over the years I have collected some questions that I believe could help someone understand if the opportunity is right for them. Here are some areas that I believe every candidate should touch through the interview process:

Business

Who are the customers? What happens if they don’t have your product?

What are the revenues right now and what are the means of ramping them up?

What is the financing now and how much runway do you have left?

When delivering your product/service - how much of the process is digital and how much of the process involves people or hard assets? Are those non-digital parts of your service on your books/payroll?

What is the current team/department budget? What is included in the budget?

Position Fit

What is the difference between an OK person in this role and a super star?

What in my experience stood out as something that will help you "move the needle?"

What is the technical stack? What are the biggest legacy code problems?

(For leadership roles) Can you tell me about my direct reports? What is their career plan and their passion?

Who are the people who failed at this? Why did they fail? What happened when they did?

What is the expectation for the next 30-90-180 days?

Culture

What do you love about working here? What keeps you here? What things annoy you?

How do you evaluate performance?

What are the metrics that the company is tracking?

I am certain that I "stole" these questions from people and articles. I wish I remembered the sources to give them credit now. If you have some other questions you believe would be helpful - please comment or send them my way.

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